With his versatile skills, Tiago Machado has always performed well at the Criterium International. Yesterday he took his best-ever result in the two-day race when he completed a stubborn fight by finishing on the podium in third to deliver his best performance yet in NetApp-Endura colours.

 

Tiago Machado completed the decisive final stage of the French two-day race Critérium International in third position. After 177 km, the 28-year old Portuguese rider only had to cede precedence to Matthias Frank (IAM) and Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R) on the Col de l’Ospedale. Thanks to his impressive performance, Machado also ended the brief tour in third place in the overall rankings.

 

“The team can only be congratulated on its performance today," sports director Christian Pömer said. "Alex Sans Vega [sports director] foresaw how the race would turn out 100%, and as a result was able to set up the team just right. We were ideally prepared and the result was correspondingly good. 

 

"A third place in such a high class field of entrants on this terrain is close to the optimum. What should also be stressed is that Tiago still had two helpers in the finale – to this extent the result was also a great team performance.

 

"The final wasn’t easy today, although I knew the course very well from my 2nd place in 2010 and my 5th place in 2011," Machado said. "I had to suffer, but this is the life of a rider.

 

"To be honest, I was surprised when I caught the leaders, thinking I could take a quick breath once I am with them and then fight for the stage but unfortunately the guys attacked again too early, so I had to make the best out of it and headed for the podium.

 

"I wanted to pay off my team, which did a great job this weekend supporting me. I am more than happy with my teammates and the Sport Directors."

 

Following the start there were numerous attacks. Only after 27 km did five riders succeed in breaking away decisively after the hectic start. 

 

The field let them gain almost five minutes before the teams with the climbing specialists launched the catch-up work half-way through the stage. All of the breakaways had already been brought back into the fold 65 km before the finish in the ascent to the fourth mountain classification. 

 

The favorites broke away on the final ascent. A group of seven riders crystallized on the last five kilometers as a result of speed increases, including Tiago Machado. After being unable to follow several attacks, Machado fought his way back to the leaders over the last few kilometers and sprinted to the podium.